Quidditch Tales
by Marvelgeek42
Summary: Why would anyone need more than brooms and Quidditch in their life? [Possibly related oneshots]
1. Oliver and his Brooms

**Written for The Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition, Season Four (Round 5)**

 **Team: Puddlemere United**

 **Position: Seeker**

 **Prompt: Broomstick**

 **Word Count without A/N: 1,023 (Google Docs)**

* * *

Broomsticks were a very important thing for almost every witch or wizard.

There were the Professional Quidditch players who would be lost without one, then there were the over-excited school children who played for recreation and those who simply needed a broomstick for transportation.

Depending on what you needed the broom for, you would need different features. A Quidditch player's broom would have to react to small movements and be able to reach great heights and speeds, whereas the brooms that children learned to fly on shouldn't have any of these features.

Thus, it was no real surprise that a lot of businesses revolved around broomsticks.

Different companies focused on creating diverse models with specific qualities in mind? No one could produce a model that was suitable for everything, so every company focused on a different aspect. Some on comfort, some on speed, others on agility.

Six broomstick production companies were started during the twentieth century in Britain alone, starting with the Cleansweep Broomstick Company in 1926. They were the first to ever mass produce broomsticks.

The average witch or wizard, however, didn't want to put a lot of effort in their choices. Leonard Lynch realised this in 1954 while he was still attending Hogwarts and, as he had always been interested in journalism, decided to found a magazine with the name _Which Broomstick?_ after he graduated. The magazine became an instant success.

Broomsticks, no matter what model, needed to be properly cared for. Consequently, Franklin Meyer started to produce the so-called _Broomstick Care Kit_ , which included everything you might need to properly care for your broom.

Oliver Wood knew all this, of course. He had read his father's subscription of _Which Broomstick?_ for almost as long as he could remember (the magazine was the only reason he had learnt to read as early as he did) and before that, he had begged until someone would read it out to him.

Yet, here he was, standing before the window of _Quality Quidditch Supplies_ , feeling completely lost. It wasn't that he did not know what broom he wanted, oh no—it was that they would never be able to afford it.

As his father was a halfblood from a minor house and his mother was a muggleborn, they never were that well off (though it wasn't as bad as the Weasleys). They were already saving money for the Quidditch World Cup in three years and Oliver already had a perfectly fine broomstick. He owned a well cared for _Air Wave Gold_ that worked perfectly fine, yet Oliver couldn't help but dream of owning a _Nimbus 2000_.

It was the fastest broomstick currently in production, after all. How could he not imagine himself owning one and not letting a single Quaffle through the rings ever again? If he owned a _Nimbus 2000_ , the opposing teams would have no chance to win (provided they managed to find a better Seeker than the one they had been stuck with last year).

Oliver had done his best to save money to buy one since the company had first announced they were building it. He had even gotten a job in the muggle world. Granted, he only delivered newspapers, but he hadn't been able to find any other job and he needed the money.

Despite his best efforts, he had not managed to save enough. He wasn't even close to being able to afford the broom by the time his parents took him to Diagon Alley to buy the supplies for his OWL year.

But Oliver was not a person who gave up easily.

Instead of simply spending the money he had already earned, he continued saving it. If it didn't work his year, he would simply raise money until next year and then he'd be able to buy one.

* * *

When Harry Potter managed to impress Professor McGonagall so much that she let him join the team—despite the fact that he was a first year who broke the school rules—Oliver was ecstatic.

When Harry got a _Nimbus 2000_ , Oliver's enthusiasm—that had already been gigantic before—almost quadrupled. He couldn't wait for the season! With the team they had put together, it was almost impossible for them to lose!

Yet he couldn't help but feel a bit of resent towards Harry. Sure, the boy was very nice and a great Seeker, but Oliver still felt envy. Potter hadn't even known of Quidditch before the summer (scandalous as that was), and he already owned an international-standard broomstick, while Oliver had worked hard and still was not close to owning one.

But Oliver knew that envy wouldn't do anything to bring him closer to his goal of owning a _Nimbus 2000_ too. Only work could.

As it was impossible to continue with his muggle job during the school year, he thought of something else.

After asking Madam Hooch for permission, Oliver began to teach those who had not managed to completely learn flying during the compulsory lessons, but still desired to learn (and were willing to pay a sickle per lesson).

He told his friends and family to give him money for his birthday (and Christmas) and didn't go to any Hogsmeade weekends that year—instead choosing to catch up with his homework, study or plan strategies during this time.

Eventually, he managed to save enough money to finally buy the _Nimbus 2000_.

Unfortunately, this was overshadowed by the _Nimbus 2001_ s that the Slytherin team had been 'donated' (or rather bribed with).

* * *

A few years later, after the Battle of Hogwarts, after Voldemort was defeated, Oliver got prompted.

He was now the actual keeper of Puddlemere United, not just the reserve!

Two days after the change was made public, a broomstick (not just any broomstick, a _Starsweeper XXI_!) arrived for Oliver, despite the fact that he had not yet ordered a new broom.

Oliver had been horribly confused—until he found the letter that accompanied the broom.

 _Hey Oliver,_

 _I know you worked hard for that Nimbus, but no broom can last forever. Take this as a thank you for being the best Captain I ever had (don't tell Angelina, please—she would castrate me)!_

 _Harry Potter_

* * *

 **Please tell me what you think!**

 **~Marvelgeek42**


	2. Brooms vs Trees

**Written for the _Scavenger Hunt_ in _The Golden Snitch_ (prompt: Quidditch Practise in 'my' school).**

 **Word Count: 507**

* * *

 _ **Brooms vs. Trees**_

* * *

Quidditch Practise in Koldovstoretz was completely awesome, but also different than it was in any other place, Alyona supposed.

It had to be; after all no one else used entire uprooted trees instead of broomsticks. At least not to her knowledge and her knowledge about that was quite extensive.

Even the RQL—the Russian Quidditch League—used broomsticks. Otherwise they would either never be allowed to play with any foreign team or would have to train twice the amount of them. And, uh, no thank you.

Playing on broomsticks had to be so boring, she was lucky her parents had not sent her to Durmstrang like they had debated. Alyona would choose a tree every time without a second of hesitation.

It was a whole lot of fun and opened countless new possibilities for foul play that weren't even included in that British book— _Quidditch Through The Ages_ —that her roommate, Manya, had shown her. She'd gotten it from a British friend of hers she made over some sort of letter exchange program. Manya had sent the Russian version in return and the two of them had gotten in a heated discussion over the usefulness of uprooted trees in Quidditch.

Alyona did not even think about where she stood in that particular discussion.

Uprooted trees were just so much more useful, especially from her perspective, the perspective of a Beater. You could grab a broomstick too, sure, but it was quite hard to hit them with a bludger or something. That was no problem with their trees. Alyona herself currently held the school record for doing this.

The point being, in Alyona's opinion, Koldovstoretz was by far the most exciting place for Quidditch practise.

She had always loved to watch her brothers and sisters play and then—three years, five months, two weeks, and four days ago—she too had gotten the chance.

And boy, she was good at it.

She had no qualms to brag about it to anyone who listened to her long enough—the number got increasingly smaller for some reason—in any given moment.

Just last week—in a real game against their rival team and not in a simple practise—she had managed to distract the opposing team's Seeker long enough for Vladimir—her team's Seeker—to catch the Snitch instead. And they other guy wasn't even hurt, just stirred off-course, but that was enough, as they had been racing for it before.

Alyona was very proud of that. It brought her close to her dream of being the best Beater in the entire RQL.

During this particular practise, she was trying to learn a new move with her fellow beater, Sasha. One of them would aim for the other one's tree where it would bump off and more towards their intended victim.

Pretty basic, but also pretty awesome; just the way she liked her moves to be. It was no use for a Beater to overcomplicate their movements. Their goal wasn't to escape, to follow or to catch; it was to _hit_.

And Alyona loved that more than anything else in her life.

* * *

 **Please tell me what you think!**

 **~Marvelgeek42**


	3. Practise Makes Perfect

**Word Count: 912**

* * *

 _ **Practise Makes Perfect**_

* * *

"Sweet Merlin, can't you do anything correctly, Johnson?" Cormac McLaggen yelled at Angelina Johnson seconds before the two of them even set a foot on the ground. They were doing a last minute Quidditch Practice, as their Seeker, Harry Potter was currently lying in the Hospital Wing after some accident that was somehow connected to the forbidden corridor.

Neither the Chasers nor the Beaters liked him, but they had to acknowledge Oliver's point: Better him than no Seeker at all.

"Yes, actually. You have seen the goals I make fly-by and I've seen your jaw drop more than once. And, contrary to certain other, non-permanent members of the team, I neither forget my position nor that I am not the Captain," she deadpanned.

"Yeah." Alicia landed next to her. The other members of the team—Katie, Oliver, and the Weasley Twins—were still in the air, but it could only be a matter of seconds until they, too, arrived at the scene.

"Angelina knows what she's doing. If you had not distracted her, she would have made that goal. But no! You—a Keeper who is replacing a Seeker because literally no one else wanted and dared to try to replace Harry—tried to explain her what to do!"

The Weasley Twins were moving to either side of Angelina, emphasizing their Beater's Bats.

"You think Madam Pomphrey would get him back on his feet in time for the game?" one of them—Fred? George?—asked the other.

"Yes, but Oliver might murder us for keeping him from practising with the dolt," the other—George? Fred?—replied.

"Are you sure? I mean, he can't play without Beaters either..." Twin #1 trailed off.

Angelina looked at McLaggen and was relieved to see him unusually pale. She wished she had brought her camera.

Though it seemed like Alicia did. The other Chaser had always a considerable amount of thing in her pockets under various charms.

"Let's just ask him," Twin #2 proposed. "See, there he is!"

Indeed, Oliver and Katie were sprinting towards him.

Before anyone else could react, McLaggen tried to blame everything on the twins who, surprisingly, let him talk before proposing their idea.

"No one is hurting anyone here," Oliver ordered, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Aw, but Oliver," Twin #1 tried to argue.

"No. We need to improve if we want to win this year's Quidditch House Cup. We need to practise until we're perfect. We need to work like a well-oiled machine. McLaggen, don't distract other players of our team. Concentrate on the Snitch. Chasers, don't let yourself be distracted. You never know what might happen. Remember our first game of the year? Who's to say something like this doesn't happen again? You need to stay focused. Beaters, your job is to stop the other team from scoring, not to stop our Seeker from catching the snitch. Did everyone understand that?"

He looked them into the eyes one by one and they all replied affirmative, some more and some less enthusiastic.

"And you, Oliver, need to work on having a reserve Seeker on hand," Katie joked.

"Yeah, that's a pretty dumb idea," Fred agreed.

"Especially since our Seeker is Harry Potter," George added.

"What are you talking about?" Oliver questioned. "This worked fine so far."

"Really? Then why are we working with McJerk over there?" Angelina asked, pointing in McLaggen's direction.

The boy in question looked quite insulted, which might have been reasonable if Angelina had not been stating a fact, Alicia supposed, but she was wise enough to keep her thoughts to herself.

Out loud, she explained the problem to her Captain who seemed to have some sort of tunnel vision set on Harry. "Let's face it, Harry's likely to be injured or otherwise unavailable again, so it would be better for us if we were to have a permanent reserve Seeker that actually trains with us."

"That's right," Twin #2 agreed.

"Come to think of it," Twin #1 added.

"That might be a good idea for every position," they chorused. Alicia was convinced that they practised that, there was no way this was natural.

"You're right," Oliver finally realized. "After all, then we will not have an adjusting period, no matter if any of our players is otherwise occupied. We'd all know each other's strengths and weaknesses and how to strengthen or cover them respectively."

"Exactly," Katie approved, grinning like the madwoman Alicia had decided roughly a year ago she was.

"I am going to need to prepare so much and there are only three days left-"  
"Whoah there," Angelina interrupted what was sure to turn into a page long speech. "You can do that next year. Right now we need to focus on our current problems." She glanced at McLaggen. "Or rather: our current problem. Then you have all the time you need to be ready in September with a full training regime for twice the number of people and everything."

"But-"

"No arguments, don't get ahead of yourself. This is our final game of the year in case you forgot. We need a perfect team if we want to win the Cup and have even a remote chance of winning the House Cup," Alicia ordered, because damn, she wanted these Cups. Her brother Marcus in Slytherin had not stopped smirking in the last month or so and she would not be able to stand that much longer!

Oliver grinned.

"Well then I guess we'll have to practise, because practise makes perfect."

* * *

 **Please tell me what you think!**

 **~Marvelgeek42**


	4. Terrible Words

**Written for the** ** _Speed Drabble_** **at** ** _Hogwarts_.**

 **Also, this is the first time I ever wrote a Soulmate!AU.**

 **Word Count: 369**

* * *

 _ **Terrible Words**_

* * *

"I'm sorry Oliver, but the two of us just won't work anymore," Percy Weasley said. On the first day back in Hogwarts. "It's not your fault. I simply found _her_."

"Your soulmate?" Oliver asks weakly. That's what he had been afraid of the entire time. Neither of them had said each other's words, but Percy had assured him it didn't matter.

Oliver loved the concept of soulmates, because there was one person that would always support you, always be on your side. He just hated the words that were written across his torso.

 _Were you dumped or something? Cause I can totally leave if you want._

That did not promise a nice start of their relationship.

The new Prefect nodded. "Yes. Penelope and I met at this morning in the prefect compartment on the train and-"

"I don't care," Oliver deadpanned. "You said that it didn't matter. You said you wouldn't leave me and now you do."

Percy shook his head. "Once upon a time that was the truth, but now that I actually met her that is different. I can't explain it, it just is."

"If all you wanted was the true love, then why on earth did you use me like this?!"

He didn't give Percy a chance to reply as he turned around and ran to the place he felt most at home: the Quidditch field.

What surprised him was that there was another person there. It was the twins' friend, Lee Jordan. The two of them had never really talked before or if they did, Oliver couldn't recall it.

"I actually came here to be alone, because I didn't think anyone else would be here already," Oliver confessed when the dark skinned boy raised an eyebrow.

Lee flinched. "Were you dumped or something? Cause I can totally leave if you want."

Now it was Oliver's turn to flinch. He had never heard this words spoken by anyone but his mother before and this was so much worse.

A few seconds passed until Lee realised what just happened.

"Wait, did I just say your words? Cause you said mine."

Oliver blinked. "Yes, you did. And I thought I was the only one with such terrible words."

* * *

 **Please tell me what you think!**

 **~Marvelgeek42**


End file.
